Stavert believed in Ducks baseball, and team has come to believe in him, too

Steve Gibbons/Special to The OregonianOregon pitcher Erik Stavert, who'll take the mound Saturday at Washington State, has been one of the few bright spots for the Ducks in their first season since 1981.

Instead of seeing gravel and rocks, Stavert saw an opportunity. Despite not knowing the exact location of the future home of Oregon baseball, he could picture himself standing atop the mound of a sparkling new ballpark and throwing strikes past feared Pacific-10 Conference hitters.

"I was told, 'Use your vision,'" Stavert said. "They said, 'This might be where it's built at, or maybe it'll be over here, or over there, or maybe even over there.' But I had a lot of faith. I had faith in what they were doing here."

Oregon at Washington State

When: 7 p.m. Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, noon Monday

Where: Bailey-Brayton Field (3,500), Pullman, Wash.

Records: Oregon (14-31, 4-14 Pac-10), Washington State (22-20, 11-7)

On the air: Radio on KUIK (1360) today and Monday, Sunday on KXTG (95.5)

The lowdown: Ducks coach George Horton is optimistic that this could be the weekend his team wins its first Pac-10 series. With no midweek game to worry about last Tuesday and this series starting a day later than usual, Horton expects a rejuvenated Oregon team to take the field tonight. "This longer week might be just what we needed," Horton said. ...
After winning the series opener against UCLA last week, Horton said Oregon "regressed" in two losses by a combined score of 14-3. The key, he said, will be maintaining a positive attitude and not getting too down after a rough inning. "We're pretty fragile," Horton said. ... The Ducks, who don't have a batter with an average above .300, have been held to three or fewer runs in their past seven games. But Oregon has received an offensive boost lately from junior left fielder Curtis Raulinaitis, who has a .356 average in his past 12 games. Overall, Raulinaitis leads the Ducks with a .298 average. ... Washington State, which entered the weekend tied for third, has been one of the surprises of the Pac-10 after being predicted to finish eighth by the conference coaches before the season. ... The series is starting a day later to accommodate WSU's graduation ceremonies this weekend. That is also why Oregon was forced to stay in a hotel in Clarkston, Wash., about a 50-minute drive from Pullman, where hotels were filled. The Ducks traveled north by bus from Eugene on Friday, a 460-mile, eight-hour trip that the players hoped would help strengthen their already good team chemistry. "From the beginning of the season to now, our team chemistry has come a long, long way," Oregon catcher Mitch Karraker said. "I think even more than the coaches expected it would. In the clubhouse, we're still loose. It's no fun losing, but we're still focused and having fun and getting better every day."

-- Jeff Smith

A similar faith will be on display at 7 p.m. Saturday when Stavert toes the rubber in Oregon's series-opening game at Washington State. But this time, the faith will be exhibited by the Ducks' players and coaches, who have learned to believe that positive results are on the horizon when the junior right-hander starts.

"When you write that name down on the lineup card, you go, 'OK, we've got a good chance to win today,'" Oregon coach George Horton said. "And the team is a little bit more up on their toes when he pitches, expecting to be in the game and win. He's been nails. Every start he's had he's given us a chance to win."

Wins have been few and far between for the Ducks (14-31, 4-14 Pac-10) in their first baseball season since 1981.

But, in many respects, Oregon's struggles have made Stavert's success more impressive. The junior college transfer is 5-3 with a 2.48 earned-run average, giving him more than one-third of his team's victories and the fifth-lowest ERA in the Pac-10.

Stavert, who played his first two seasons at Chabot College in Hayward, Calif., has been even better in conference action. In Pac-10 play, he has the conference's second-lowest ERA (1.88) and has the fifth-lowest opponents' batting average (.197).

Stavert, who has picked up the Ducks' lone two victories in their past 18 games, has pitched at least eight innings and recorded at least eight strikeouts in his past three starts.

"Whether it's true or not, I feel that I'm way better than the guy that I'm facing, and I just want to show it to him and to everybody else that just because we're a new team doesn't mean we can't win," Stavert said. "I love facing the best of the best. That's how you find out how good you really are."

Stavert arrived in the fall with that confident attitude, which initially gave Horton an incorrect impression. Horton looked at Stavert's earrings and listened to his tone of voice and wondered if the Livermore, Calif., native was going to be more trouble than he was worth.

"He comes from a rough part of California, talks a little bit like a thug and he has earrings off the field, so if you didn't know him you'd think, 'OK, what's this guy all about?'" Horton said. "But as we've gotten to know him better we know he's made of the right stuff. He loves his family, loves his team and puts his own individual stuff secondary. That's where earrings and the way people talk can fool you.

"He's really got a big heart and is obviously a lot better young man than I thought he might be."

Stavert is so focused on his team goals that he refuses to talk about the Major League Baseball draft. Every time Stavert starts, a cluster of scouts sit close behind home plate to watch the right arm that made Real Baseball Intelligence rank Stavert the 131st overall draft prospect in the country.

But rather than get caught up in that -- "scout-itis," he calls it -- Stavert prefers to keep his attention on helping make the final month of the season a memorable one for the Ducks. Even if Stavert chooses to become a professional and leave after this season like many believe he will, his teammates believe Stavert's influence will have a long-term benefit.

"He's a bright light in our struggling season," said Oregon catcher Mitch Karraker, who played against Stavert last season while at Fresno City College. "We all definitely want to set the tone, not only for this year but for future years. We want to be in the top of the Pac-10 and Stavert's really shown us what we need to do to get there and what can be done."

In that sense, Stavert has even surpassed his own lofty vision from 19 months ago.